Great article! I wish she went into more detail about how to socialize your dog to other dogs and teach him not to be rude to other dogs, like the mounting and dominant posturing Kramer does.

 Quote: elizabeth nowik

Great article! I wish she went into more detail about how to socialize your dog to other dogs and teach him not to be rude to other dogs, like the mounting and dominant posturing Kramer does.

I would probably want to give the dog some time to settle into his new home and new owners.

Also, as this happens, you will be (1) learning more about canine body language and becoming alert to what signals other dogs are sending yours, and (2) making the very wise (IMO) decision to keep your dog out of situations where he is accosted by out-of-control off-leash dogs, whether known or unknown.

I'd like very much to have the ability to sneak back in time and space and see what the immediate actions of the other dogs were before yours mounted or postured or anything else. I'm not saying your dog didn't "start it," but I am saying that there's not a lot of reason yet to think he did.

Maybe someday your dog will have a dog buddy, and it happens that my dogs do have a couple. But I would be completely fine if they did not, and I would never expect them to meet-and-greet with strange dogs.


About reacting to leashed dogs on walks:

This is good: "I have noticed, too, that if I just keep walking or get his attention with a whistle on the few occasions where he has zeroed in on another dog and pulled at the leash to get closer, he calms down and refocuses much faster than if I stop and try to do some sort of attempt to regain his control. "


There are several detailed threads here with step-by-step desensitizing suggestions. They start (for me) with focus work at home and with gradually-increasing distraction to proof basic ob marker training.



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Edited by Connie Sutherland (09/01/2010 01:36 PM)
Edit reason: eta

I thought it was brilliant, makes so much sense!

What a terrific article!! Definitely bookmark worthy, and something a LOT of people I know should read.

Elizabeth, I agree with others about your dog being still new enough to you and your household that I would refrain from any and all unnecessary dog-dog interaction at this point. Keep working with him, honing those focus during distraction exercises, and make sure the two of you are learning each other's communication styles, and that Kramer is building good trust and respect for you. The stronger your bond with him the more likely he'll be to listen to you as you guide him through social encounters later on.

As you continue to work with and train your dog, you'll also get a feel for how social he really wants to be - some dogs could simply care less about playing with others (I have one) and continually asking them to enter situations where they must both accept another dog into their space AND get along calmly with them is stressful and unfair. If you think you've got a social dog on your hands, it's likely worth the effort down the line to get him used to appropriate interaction and play behaviors - if it looks like he's not all that jazzed about hanging with other canines (*don't misunderstand reactivity or prey drive for a desire to play), he can still lead a perfectly normal dog life just spending his days interacting with YOU.

If you do end up training social behaviors, it's in your best interest to start with THE calmest, most neutral dog you know - one on one, no packs! First interactions are highly structured (leash walks, down stays in the same yard, etc), leading to more free form activity. Rude behaviors like humping and T-ing off should simply be discouraged via negative verbal marker and/or physical interference - consistency is key. If your dog can't refrain from these actions, the session ends. There are a lot of finer points to this, but it's essentially an issue of conditioning the behaviors out of him. Even a dog trained not to hump or dominantly display can still send subtle signals to others however, hence the suggestion to not allow "sidewalk hellos" with strangers, and avoid places like unpredictable dog parks.

~Natalya

Great article! I've sent it off to some people I know (including myself) and printed it to put in my dog's book.

Thanks for all the help! I think I have a horror of my dog getting in trouble because of irresponsible dog owners who don't control their own dogs. This morning, for example, in the relative safety of my familiar neighborhood park where leash policy is CLEARLY marked, we had a bichon frise off leash with no interest in listening to its owner run up after us, as Kramer was trying to take a poop, no less. I didn't really want to leave a pile of Kramer-poo there near the sidewalk, so we marched in a wide circle with the obnoxious bichon hopping at our heels until it got bored with the fact we weren't going to encourage it and went back to its owner - who STILL didn't leash it! We cleaned up after ourselves and went home. When the other dog was trying to interact with us, Kramer did try to dig in his heels a bit and turn back to check out the other dog at first, but I didn't feel any dangerous tension in his body.